head to head · open source
rclone vs Nextcloud
rclone has 59,830 GitHub stars, 5,407 forks, 1,273 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Nextcloud has 36,844 stars, 5,227 forks, 3,657 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rclone leads on adoption by 62% (59,830 vs 36,844 stars). rclone is written in Go under MIT; Nextcloud is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. rclone has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Nextcloud 14%. Nextcloud was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 15422 open source comparisons
Side by side
| rclone | Nextcloud | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 37K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 5.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rclone if
- You weight community size — 60K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Nextcloud if
- You want the Nextcloud feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Nextcloud fits your workflow better
About rclone
Rclone is an MIT licensed, Go based command line program that syncs files and directories to and from cloud storage providers, built for anyone who needs one tool for many backends instead of a separate client for every service.
read the full rclone overview →
About Nextcloud
Nextcloud is a self hosted cloud collaboration platform built in PHP, licensed under AGPL 3.0. It enables organizations and individuals to store, synchronize, and share files, contacts, calendars, and other data on infrastructure they control, replacing reliance on third party cloud services. The project lives in the open source cloud software ecosystem and serves as a decentralized alternative to proprietary suites like Dropbox, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365.
read the full Nextcloud overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More File Management & Sync projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the File Management & Sync field.
Frequently asked questions
Is rclone or Nextcloud more popular?
rclone has 59,830 GitHub stars and Nextcloud has 36,844. rclone has the larger community by that measure.
Are rclone and Nextcloud free?
Both are open source. rclone is licensed under MIT and Nextcloud under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rclone and Nextcloud?
rclone is written in Go and Nextcloud in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, rclone or Nextcloud?
Choose rclone if you want the larger community (59,830 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Nextcloud if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.